- Form your team based on engagement scope and deliverables.
Consider the required expertise and bandwidth
it will take to deliver on the scope of work
you've agreed to with a client.
The team will consist of your associates, client personnel
and external contractors or experts.
You'll need to assign specific roles
to each team member so there's clarity
on who's responsible for each engagement activity.
Let the needs of the engagement dictate the team you build.
At Thought Leaders, we actually serve
another consulting firm as our client.
They wanted to define
the competency model for their consultants.
When we staffed the engagement,
we had team members from the client side
who knew their people and knew their culture.
When we went to staff it from my side,
I picked team members who had all been consultants
at major consulting firms.
I mean, who better to define the competency model
for consultants than people who had worked
at a big consulting firm?
It was a perfect staffing for that engagement.
Another time, I was the client.
I worked at a large financial service firm.
We had a consultant come in to do
some technology work for us.
In terms of the team that they scoped,
they said we want analysts from your side.
We also want IT people and operations people from your side.
From the consulting side, they brought their IT people,
their analysts and an engagement manager.
It was a good balance of expertise
and a balance of personnel from the client side
and from the consulting side.
When you're staffing your team, ask yourself:
what are the workstreams?
What expertise do I need for each workstream?
How long will each workstream take?
How many people do I need for that amount of work?
How can I staff this affordably based
on geography and travel?
Who's the best cultural fit or industry fit
from the consulting side of the house?
Your staffing plan can make or break the engagement.
Make sure you put sufficient rigor into determining
who the team is for every consulting engagement you staff.